It’s time for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. We’re getting more variety in our harvests now, as more of the spring veggies and even some summer ones are ready to harvest. I pulled a trio of Beas kohlrabi for eating last week. Beas is the first white-skinned kohlrabi variety, and these were nice sized and weighed in at around 8 ounces each. They had quite a bit of slug damage on the skins, which won’t effect the eating quality any. I am mindful these could not be sold in a grocery, which is a shame since so much of our food here in the U.S. goes to waste, often because it doesn’t look perfect. But this is the way our veggies look around here – perfectly imperfect!
Beas kohlrabi
The first two Patio Baby eggplants I cut were pretty much picture perfect though. I’ve even managed to keep flea beetles off these container grown plants, with occasional sprays of a Pyganic and neem oil mix.. There are more fruits setting on the eggplants, and these first two got roasted up on a sheet pan along with other veggies.
Patio Baby eggplant
Along with the first eggplant, we also cut the last asparagus of 2019. We had a good run of it, getting 20 pounds in all, and decided to let it grow out now. My wife has been busy weeding and mulching it again, and that should be the last we have to do to the beds until winter when we cut down the ferns. I say “we” but she pretty much does all the hard work in the asparagus bed herself.
last asparagus of 2019
I’m cutting more and more of the spring planted lettuce now. I’m growing Ruby Gem for the first time, and this baby romaine from Renee’s Garden Seeds did quite well for me. I’ll be growing it again this fall for sure.
trio of Ruby Gem lettuces
Ruby Gem lettuce
I also cut Slobolt and Flashy Trout Back last week. They both had a little slug damage, but not as bad as the kohlrabi. The Slobolt wound up in a wilted lettuce salad, one of my favorite seasonal treats.
Slobolt lettuce
I cut some colorful Miz America and Red Kingdom mizuna to go in a frittata we had for lunch one day. Neither has started bolting yet, so we will enjoy them while we can.
Red Kingdom and Miz America mizuna
Last but definitely not least, I cut more of the broccolini last week. This included the main heads of Artwork, and side shoots of Apollo. I also cut the first of the spring-planted Burgundy purple sprouting broccoli.
Apollo, Artwork and Burgundy broccoli
I cut these first spears of Burgundy just 60 days after setting out the plants. Most PSB is planted in fall and harvested in winter, but Burgundy is good for all seasons. It was bred and developed in the UK, and I look forward to seeing how it does here in summer and fall. I got my seeds for Burgundy from Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Burgundy broccoli
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!
Hi Dave, unfortunately we can’t get hold of Burgundy broccoli seed in the UK at the moment, it looks like a viable summer variety. I’ve given up on growing PSB in summer, at least for this year.
Food is wasted here in the UK too on the grounds of looks. Some supermarket have a wonky vegetable range but their idea of wonky looks quite perfect to me. It seems to be just a gimmick. It’s really immoral the amount of perfectly good food that is thrown away.
That’s amazing about the PSB – I figured that was one crop that would have to wait until I have a greenhouse someday (hopefully!) but it looks like I may be able to grow it after all. Burgundy is on the list!
I’m up for trying Burgundy. I’ve had limited success with PSB here in San Diego. Thanks for sharing all the info. Ruby Gem looks like a winner too. Who knew there was a patio eggplant?
Still so jealous of your broccoli… i just planted new plants .. hoping the rats dont eat them. I also plznted out new kohlrabi… in my greenhouse hoping the dont come out so far.. and then yesterday i found a mole in the greenhouse .. lovely things all those critters. .
When I see the posts of your wonderful harvests, I am reminded how lazy I am, and how much more I would be able to harvest, if I actually put the effort in! One way that food waste could be reduced could be to dehydrate it – then either use as is, or blitz it to a powder. Admittedly, this method is quite energy intensive!
We do a lot of dehydrating here. Things like tomatoes, peppers, garlic are quite useful when dried, also herbs.
I must confess that when I’m buying veggies I’m quite judgemental about cosmetics, passing up the ugly for the pretty, but I’ve enjoyed eating many an ugly veggie from the garden. No harvest post from me again this week, I’m quite short on motivation for either gardening or blogging at the moment. Hopefully it’s just a temporary situation.